Email this article to a friend

Robert Greifeld, the chief executive of the Nasdaq Stock Market and the mastermind behind its merger with European group OMX a month ago, has added to calls for regulatory reform, arguing that exchanges regulated in the US are at a disadvantage.

Greifeld, who spearheaded two failed bids to buy the London Stock Exchange in 2006 and 2007, said US rules regulated by the US Securities and Exchanges Commission are unwieldy and US exchanges should be given more flexibility.

Bloomberg reports that Greifeld singled out legislators in the SEC’s trading and markets department.

He said: “We have people who are lacking personal, practical knowledge of the markets deciding what’s right. You end up with a dysfunctional organization, when you consider the competitive landscape that we are in today.”

The Nasdaq chief argued exchanges should be free to implement changes quickly while the regulators should conduct their reviews only after new rules have been implemented.

Griefeld’s comments follow similar calls for reforms from other US-based executives involved with the exchange sector, including John Thain, the former chief executive of the New York Stock Exchange and currently the chief executive of US brokerage Merrill Lynch.

The SEC at the start of this week declared plans to implement "mutual recognition" between its own and regulatory regimes in other countries.

The regulator said it was “exploring initial agreements with one or more foreign regulatory counterparts” and “considering adoption of a formal process for engaging other national regulators on the subject of mutual recognition”.

Christopher Cox, the chairman of the SEC, said: “Innovations in technology have eliminated many barriers to cross-border access between US and foreign markets, and that in turn has increased US investor demand for foreign investment opportunities.”